Yes and no. Yes that something like a world war is complex. No I’m several ways.
Children of a young age have varying degrees of comprehension. They can’t generally grasp or follow highly complexed and nuanced matters far outside their own emotional and personal experience. Look at their ability to understanding complicated matters of adult relationships, sexuality, responsibility and why adults do things that are “bad” but are socially acceptable or advantageous. That isn’t to say children’s thinking is wrong or cannot be wise- but try adhering to concepts of adult human accountability and self governance when dealing with a dog and see how that turns out. Regardless of wether a “simpler” view is “better,” the fact is most adults do not think and operate that way.
Now children grow up, many don’t advance much in their comprehension as adults and while many do- they often get busy and have other priorities and so tend to revert to only being able to follow or understand short and simplified summaries of complex concepts and events. Key details. Context is lost and there are other issues with this- but who even reads my comments? They are full of context and specific language generally and they don’t get read or are even despised for their length and detail, because people generally don’t want that. They want the key take aways and the simple version.
And lastly, that same perception bias that makes a simplified “blame game” dangerous because people vilify the “antagonist” or laud the “hero” when often those concepts don’t apply… it works the other way too with revisionist history and sympathizing. Not everyone has the mental bandwidth to avoid this.
Let’s look at WW2. It was complex. It wasn’t started by the Nazis” and we can argue from the stand point of the Nazis and their sympathizers that they were not “bad guys,” they did bad things and had some problematic views on race and such. Because America was an inclusive wonderland in the 40’s and didn’t commit any atrocities right? Because other Allies like Russia were humanitarian beacons..?
But- it’s hard for anyone no matter how intelligent to understand things they didn’t live through. Most people have trouble enough understanding the period of history they actually experienced. There is no acceptable history book where we take a neutral view of the Nazis and what they did.
There is no neutral view of the great leap or the rape of Nanking or the killing fields of Cambodia. Yes, the “monsters” in these stories are mostly all human beings. They mostly all had some reasons for what they did and they mostly all thought they were helping or making the world better or doing what was necessary but hard for a better world or a better life for those they cared about. They likely all or mostly had kids and pets and favorite foods and people that loved them. They probably did nice things for people sometimes and told a funny joke now and then and could be downright kind and gracious in the right settings.
Those things aren’t important to the broad strokes history beyond to remind people most monsters are humans and that a smile and charisma and strong words and promises to make our lives better can lead us down that same path because we too are human and it is a short and easy walk from man to monster that is in our deeds and not necessarily our goals. It’s important that for now and in a million years every human knows how to spot a Nazi wether they call themselves Nazis or not, and knows that people like that wether they are monsters or not will bring out the monstrousness in our society and in others. It is important that no generation is without ample people who will punch a Nazi on sight.
Children of a young age have varying degrees of comprehension. They can’t generally grasp or follow highly complexed and nuanced matters far outside their own emotional and personal experience. Look at their ability to understanding complicated matters of adult relationships, sexuality, responsibility and why adults do things that are “bad” but are socially acceptable or advantageous. That isn’t to say children’s thinking is wrong or cannot be wise- but try adhering to concepts of adult human accountability and self governance when dealing with a dog and see how that turns out. Regardless of wether a “simpler” view is “better,” the fact is most adults do not think and operate that way.
Let’s look at WW2. It was complex. It wasn’t started by the Nazis” and we can argue from the stand point of the Nazis and their sympathizers that they were not “bad guys,” they did bad things and had some problematic views on race and such. Because America was an inclusive wonderland in the 40’s and didn’t commit any atrocities right? Because other Allies like Russia were humanitarian beacons..?
There is no neutral view of the great leap or the rape of Nanking or the killing fields of Cambodia. Yes, the “monsters” in these stories are mostly all human beings. They mostly all had some reasons for what they did and they mostly all thought they were helping or making the world better or doing what was necessary but hard for a better world or a better life for those they cared about. They likely all or mostly had kids and pets and favorite foods and people that loved them. They probably did nice things for people sometimes and told a funny joke now and then and could be downright kind and gracious in the right settings.